


After Horizon: Got Your Back

by Toastybluetwo



Series: After Horizon [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-25
Updated: 2012-02-25
Packaged: 2017-10-31 17:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/346662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toastybluetwo/pseuds/Toastybluetwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a small ship, word gets around. The fact that Commander Shepard and Kaidan Alenko had an altercation on Horizon is no secret. This series explores various characters’ reactions to the events on Horizon.</p><p>Some situations require subtlety.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Horizon: Got Your Back

“Morning, Massani.” Gabby Shepard walked into the room, immediately past him, and made quick work of dumping a large bag into the trash compactor.

Zaeed had been answering his correspondence at his computer terminal. By the time he looked up, a greeting on his lips, Shepard was already on the way out of his makeshift quarters.

“G’morning…” He frowned, watching as the door closed swiftly behind her, faintly wondering what had her moving so quickly and in such a hurry. Why had she carried her own garbage down to the compactor? What was she trying to hide?

Zaeed had no sooner risen from his chair than the door opened again, and Kasumi walked into the room. She, unlike Shepard, paused politely in the doorway. “Am I disturbing you?”

“Not at all.” He gestured at a chair covered with a number of weapon parts. “Clear off a space. What’s on your mind?”

“Was Shepard just here?” As Kasumi spoke, he caught intensity in her voice.

“Yeah. You just missed her. She threw out some rubbish and left in a hurry. Why?” Subtlety had never been Zaeed’s strongest quality, but something told him that Ktsumi knew exactly what occupied Commander Shepard.

“Shit.” Kasumi crossed the room in a few quick steps and yanked open the trash compactor. “Good thing she didn’t start the incinerator.” Standing on her tiptoes, she pulled out the bag that Shepard had thrown away. “Also a good thing that, in my line of work, picking through the trash is a given.”

“You wanna tell me what this is all about?” Zaeed tried to modulate his voice, but something about this situation began to itch at the back of his mind.

“It’s about Shepard doing something she’ll regret. She has a good reason, though, if I’m right about her.” Kasumi opened the bag and pulled out a large stack of vid chips, each sealed in a brightly colored package depicting a number of action scenes – ships firing on one another, handsome movie actors taking a variety of heroic poses, and small vehicles chasing one another through streets of a brightly-lit human city.

“Action vids?” Frowning, Zaeed stepped forward in an attempt to get a better look at the small collection of boxes. “Never been opened, either. She could have got a small fortune selling this collection as second-hand. Why’d she throw these away? This ain’t junk. Hell, I’d have bought these off of her at full retail.”

“It’s the principle of the thing - I know it.” Kasumi placed the stack next to Zaeed’s terminal. “Can I borrow your computer? I promise, I’ll be quick. I’ll have to be.”

With a heavy sigh, Zaeed stepped away from the table that held his terminal, gesturing toward it with the broad sweep of one of his hands.

“She was seeking these vids out. Every single one.” Swiftly, Kasumi slid into the chair next to the terminal, opened a few windows, and began to type. “I watched her do it. They are all directed by the same man.”

“Marus Tessary, yeah. Big-time action vid director.” Zaeed watched as Kasumi filled the two windows with code. “Didn’t know the Skipper was a fan. You’d better not be hacking something big.”

“She’s not, and I am.” The symbol of the Alliance Command appeared on the screen. “Hacking something big, that is. I have twenty seconds before they notice me there, but don’t worry.” She selected an entry marked ‘Personnel’. “I’ll be long gone by then.”

“Kasumi…” Zaeed sighed heavily again. “Skipper’s gonna have a fit when she finds out that you’re hacking her service file.”

“Not hers.” Kasumi scrolled down a list of names, selected ‘Alenko, Kaidan H.’, and selected it, moving swiftly to another set of selections. “I need his psych profile.”

“Scratch that, Skipper’s gonna toss you outta the airlock for mucking about in Alenko’s file.” He watched, fascinated at the speed with which Kasumi moved through years of files and what appeared to be countless lines of text.

“There it is. I knew it.” Kasumi paused, read a block of text very quickly, then deftly closed the window that held the file, exiting the system before Zaeed had time to read more than a few lines. “He watches action vids to relax. He’s quite the enthusiast.” With a sigh of her own, she looked toward the stack. “She bought these for him. Every single time we stopped at a colony with a shop, she picked one up. She’s taking this really hard, isn’t she?”

Crossing his arms, Zaeed stepped back a few paces, leaned against a wall, and stared at a blank spot on the ceiling. “I send out one message. Five blokes show up with crowbars, drag him into a quiet cargo bay, and beat the life outta him. One message, Kasumi.”

Kasumi turned around to face Zaeed, though she remained seated. Zaeed caught a glimpse of her eyes from beneath her hood. “That’s not how this should be handled.”

“We can’t have the Skipper distracted like this.” Zaeed clenched a fist and, for a moment, he was there himself – in a cargo bay, punching Kaidan Alenko in the stomach. “One message, Kasumi. I say the word, and my boys send a message in the good old fashioned way.”

“You do know that you’re talking about roughing up one of the most powerful human biotics in the galaxy, right?” Slowly, Kasumi stood up, speaking in a voice touched with concern. Then, very gently, she added: “You know that’s stupid, right?”

“I don’t want him dead.” Zaeed continued to stare at the ceiling as his blood pressure slowly rose, his mind filled with thoughts of physical violence in some imaginary place. “I just want him to piss blood for a few days.”

“I got that part.” Kasumi continued to speak slowly and in a gentle voice, as if trying to calm an angry animal. “Zaeed, I know that you mean well, but he will kill your men. Don’t waste their lives. Shepard can look after herself. This is none of your business.”

“Oh yeah?” Zaeed’s gaze returned to Kasumi’s shrouded face, but with significantly less anger behind his eyes. “Why is it your business and not mine?”

“Because this requires subtlety, not brute force.” Turning back to the work station, Kasumi took up the collection of vids and slid them back into the bag. Tucking the bag under one arm, she continued, “I’m going to keep these for another time. For the right time. If anyone asks, we never had this conversation, did we?”

Zaeed opened his mouth, reconsidered his words, then closed it. Raising his chin in a small gesture of defiance, he uttered a single word: “No.”

“Good. I like you, Zaeed. I’m glad we understand each other. See you in the mess hall, then?” Kasumi started toward the door, and it hissed open at her approach. “I hear that the cook is serving blueberry pancakes for the humans. It’s been years since I’ve had blueberry pancakes.”


End file.
